Before the Jump Off Hillshire Forest
by Her Sweetness
Summary: Wammy's. The birth of a bond that would last a lifetime was really created by a rambunctious star and a horrid smell. Matt x Mello. OS.


Title: _Before the Jump Off Hillshire Forest_

Rating: _PG-13_

Summary: _The birth of a bond that would last a lifetime was really created with a rambunctious star and a horrid smell._

A/N: _Well… this is what happens when I have an idea in my head for so long… DUDE, THIS TITLE IS SO RANDOM._

-

When he was just eight-years-old, Wammy's resident, Matt, had a shooting star crash through the walls and into his room, disintegrating everything in its path and burning up a good section of Matt's videogame collection. The rebellious star harassed Matt to no end and nearly killed him and no one - NO ONE - came to poor Matt's aid. The star burned and burned until it reached a Celsius degree so high that all of Wammy's melted in its brilliant glare, along with Matt himself, who had never been as strong as an entire building.

And that's the honest to God truth.

-

"GET OFF ME! STOP IT! AGH, FUCK YOU!"

Matt looked up, startled at the noise out in the hallway. Maybe there was a fight, he thought, but who would be fighting? Then his door opened and the source of all the exciting language was hurled into his room. A boy was thrown into the back of the room and knocked over the television set.

At the door was Rodger's face, peeking in at Matt who sat on his bed, confused and alarmed. "Matt, this is Mello. Mello, this is Matt. We hope you get along."

"… Huh?" Matt asked.

"He's your new roommate," Rodger explained.

"Huh?"

"You can't keep me here! I'll call child services!" the boy screamed, trying to throw wires off of himself.

"_Huh_?" Matt asked, still not getting it.

The door shut.

Matt sighed and set down his DS. He looked up where the boy, a young blond, was recovering and beginning to stand. "Hey… are you okay?"

He said nothing, only dusted himself off. Matt watched as he stomped across the room, totally ignoring its owner like he was a piece of furniture or something. His black clothes were tarnished and dirty, probably not just from being tossed into the television set but maybe from an earlier scuffle. The young boy - _was it Mello? _- walked over to the door and began to Judo-kick it with one of his bare feet.

Matt gasped. "Hey, that's _my _door!"

Nothing. No acknowledgement whatsoever. Just kick, kick, kick.

"… Damn," Mello cursed under his breath and looked around. He sure does curse a lot, Matt noted. He watched as Mello went to the back of the room again where there was one lone window and opened it up, hoisting himself onto the sill and trying to wiggle out.

Matt blinked, horrified. He scrambled off of the bed and ran over, grabbing a hold of the seat of Mello's pants and tried to pull him back into the room.

"Hey!" Mello protested. "Let go of me!"

"No way! You can't get out that way; we're on the second floor!"

"Screw you, I can make it!"

… Was this guy for _real_?

Matt pulled harder, straining himself and Mello popped back into the room like a cork and the two of them fell over in a ball of fists. Mello's fists. And they really hurt for such a little guy.

"S-Stop, cut it out," Matt whined, shielding himself. Mello landed a slap right over Matt's orange-tinted goggles which pushed down on the redhead's sensitive skin between his eyes. He kicked Mello off of him and rolled over to the side, cradling his face. "Ow… Jeez, that hurt…"

Mello stood up, huffing. "Well that's what you get, you fag! Touching my butt like that. I knew this was a place for creeps. I'm getting out of here."

Before he could have another go at trying to jump out of the window, Matt scrambled up and stood in his way, hands held out to block him. "Just wait a minute," Matt said, "this isn't a place for creeps. You get sent here if you're really smart, you know? You should be happy to end up here than some crappy orphanage."

"… If you're smart? Really?" This seemed to calm Mello down a little and Matt felt slight accomplishment.

"Yeah, really."

Mello considered this. "Well, you don't seem smart."

"… Hey!"

Mello walked forward, invading Matt's personal space, and stuck his face in Matt's. "How smart are you?"

"Uh… well, I'm ranked first."

"Wow! In the whole orphanage?"

"Yeah," he said, proud.

Mello laughed. "I could beat you, easy."

Matt wasn't impressed. "Go on and try if you want. I won't stop you. But try and be careful of my stuff the next time you come bouncing in…" Matt sighed and looked around their feet where his collection lay in ruins. He bent down and began to dutifully reassemble it.

Mello didn't offer to help and even stepped on some as he went to Matt's bed and hopped on top of it, making himself comfortable.

Matt looked up. "Hey, that's my bed!"

"So? You're not using it."

"But-"

"_I _need a place to sleep too."

"They'll bring you a bed."

"Awesome," Mello exclaimed. "Until that time, I'll use yours."

"_What_?"

Mello leaned back into the pillows and then a disgusted expression crept across his face. He whined, "Man, this room _smells_!"

Matt dropped his games out of surprise and disgust. Had this guy never heard of _manners_? "It does not," he countered, though it was feeble.

"Does too."

Matt groaned.

-

That night, Matt was on the floor with a sheet wrapped around his body and a lone pillow under his head. He stared up at the ceiling with the most intense frown on his face.

"I don't like sleeping on the floor," he said haughtily.

Mello shifted around up on the bed. He laughed faintly. "Should get yourself a bed then…"

"…"

-

The next day, Mello and Matt were let out of their room by Rodger, who was given angry looks by both of them, both for almost the same reason.

Why'd you stick me with _that guy_?

Matt was made - by Mello, no less - to show the blond around the mansion and the grounds, which he did without too much complaint. But every time he tried to be friendly and show him places like the dining room and the common room, Mello would have something unpleasant to say about it.

Matt showed him the playroom.

"This place smells," Mello whined.

Matt showed him the backyard.

"This place smells," Mello huffed.

Matt showed him the bathroom.

"This place _smells_!"

"It's a _bathroom_!" Matt shouted.

When they came to the end of the tour - mostly because Matt couldn't stand hearing that the place where he lived and played stank - they came back to the dining hall for lunch. Matt sat as his normal table by himself in the back corner with his food. He hoped Mello would not notice him and he sighed when the blond plunked his tray down next to him.

"This stuff looks like barf," remarked Mello as he ate it.

Matt frowned tightly. "Then why're you eating it…?"

Mello shrugged and, with his mouth full, he said, "Hey… what's your name anyway?"

"… You slept in my bed last night and you don't even know my name?"

"No."

"… I'm _Matt_."

"How come you get a normal name, huh?" Mello asked, suddenly upset. This guy was like a woman with his mood swings, Matt noted dully. "I get stuck with something all weird like _Mello_… shit. Do I seem 'mellow' to you, huh?"

"Pft. No."

"Right. I should be named Fucking Amazing."

"… You can't have _two_ names!"

"They should make an exception."

"Ugh…"

-

Matt was extremely happy when Mello finally made some friends. That was about a week later when Matt was able to lay on his bed in his room, without Mello there to kick him off or tell him he was a geek or comment about the aroma of his room. It was almost dinnertime and he could hear the shouts of kids down in the backyard, playing sports.

Matt enjoyed the silence of the room and the soft beeping noises his DS emitted until he heard a familiar voice shouting outside.

"Aw, what now," he grumbled, getting up and going to the window to have a look. Upon looking down, he saw that right below Mello was cornered against the wall by a kid almost twice his size. Matt rolled his eyes as Mello continued to tell the older boy that he smelled really bad and say horrible things about his mother.

"Hey!" Matt called. "Get away from him!"

He wasn't paid any attention to.

The older boy pushed Mello back forcefully and he fell against the wall, smacking his head against the brick wall. He held his nose and sank to the dirt ground. And that idiot was _still_ insulting his abuser.

"MELLO!" Matt shouted, hoisting himself onto the window sill. His hand slipped forward and he toppled over the ledge, screaming until his lungs were hoarse.

-

"Matt?"

Nothing.

"Matt?"

Nothing.

"MATT!"

"Wha - what? What's wrong, Mello?" Matt asked, sitting up in the bed. He had already learned that whenever he was being woken up like that, Mello was the reason for it. He needed something, he wanted something, he was complaining about something. Matt looked over and realized he wasn't in his room but in the infirmary. When he looked down, there was a white cast on his arm.

"… What happened?" he shouted, frightened.

"You broke your arm when you fell out of the window. You idiot, and you told me not to jump out," Mello explained. His nose was bleeding a little and he was scuffed up like he had been his first day but he was all right otherwise.

"… Oh…" Matt hummed, remembering. "Wait, I didn't jump, I slipped! And it's your fault. I was trying to get you to shut your trap when that guy was beating you up. And look what happened!"

Mello blinked at him.

Matt sighed. This kind of stuff _never_ happened before Mello came.

"Well… you know, you fell on that guy that hit me," Mello said.

Matt looked at him. "I did?"

"Yeah."

"… Wow."

"_Yeah_," Mello drawled, scratching the back of his head. "You really saved my ass…"

Matt blinked. Was… Mello thanking him?

"But you smell even worse now… I think you pissed yourself on the way down."

Oh, maybe not, Matt thought and sulked.

"Well, I'm not doing it again," Matt said adamantly and turned away. If Mello wouldn't just flat out appreciate kind deeds - no matter how unintentional - then no way in _hell _Matt was going to risk his life for him again. No. Way.

Mello waved away the comment. "I won't _need_ you to help me again." And with that, he walked out of the infirmary, with a little limp as an addition to his already girlish swing of the hips.

Matt sighed and thought vaguely that sharing his room with a maniac like that might _actually _get him killed one day.

What a drag.

-

A/N: _XD It ended up so different than what I had intended! But oh well. Thoughts?_


End file.
